Tag: Jesus

The End Game, what is it?


There are always end games in movies, in computer games of all kinds, in business deals and in life itself. So, what is the end game from God’s prophetic point of view that is told in the book of Revelation? It is very simple actually, to bring about the end of Satan’s reign on Earth and to restore Earth to its pre-fall condition.

Humanity fell when Adam didn’t obey God, not just one couple, but also the entirety of creation itself. Before the fall, there was no corruption of the Earth, no weeds or thorns or creeping vines which were of no use except to cover everything. All of this came to be afterward. Death and decay began after the perfection of creation was broken by disobedience.

God knew that it was coming and when. He also knew who would be responsible for the fall, not just Adam but Lucifer too. It was he in the form of a snake which tempted Eve and then Adam decided to go along with his wife instead of following the command of God. Then the Seed of the woman was foretold and we waited for about four thousand years for Him to come into the world.

When that happened, it was still a few years before His ministry came to its conclusion but when it did the endgame began. Bruised by the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, Satan has been attacking humanity for the past two thousand years. Bringing war, disease, famine, infanticide in the form of sacrifices to demon gods and abortion, the list of tragedies and heartache goes on and on, all because he knows that his time is coming to a close.

Regardless of his pride and his boasting, Satan has already been defeated but he hasn’t stopped trying to get as many people away from God as possible. If he can keep you or me from asking for Jesus to come into our lives, then he will find a way to do it. He is not above killing your family or taking your job or your home either. Any way that he can get to you, to keep you in the place of blaming God instead of asking for His help, then he and the fallen angels that followed him will do it.

Humanity has always had a special place in God’s eyes and if Satan can hurt God by hurting us or causing us to miss the calling that God has for us, then he will do it. The thing to remember is that he is already defeated! The battle is won because Jesus was triumphant over sin and death on the cross! All that we need to do is to believe in Him and His grace that has been given to us.

God did have a Son and He came to bring salvation to us by His death and resurrection at Calvary. He was foretold at least four hundred years before His birth and all of the prophecies about Him were fulfilled by Him when He came! We are important in God’s Kingdom, each of us, and there is something which each of us can do that God knows only we can do. Pray that you can and will find that point in your life, find that place which will bring you to know Jesus.

Because when you do, nothing else matters except doing something, anything for Him and His Kingdom, no matter what it might be, no matter how insignificant you may think that it is, because for Him it will be significant and you can make a difference. Why would anyone do this? Because, Jesus died for you to be able to do it, that’s why! He paid the price so that you can be the person that God knows you can be with His Spirit guiding and helping you to be that person.

So many choices….


There are truly a number of choices for us to choose from relating to religion and our belief systems, whether they point to God, the Creator and the Godhead which is focused on in the Bible or not. In today’s society, it seems that almost any belief which focuses on something or someone outside of the God of Judaism or Christianity, is perfectly acceptable. Why? Because, there is no compulsion or consequence to your actions when there is no absolute Truth to compare to or live by. Most of the other religions of the world have differing ways of reward and punishment regardless of the entity that they follow, but even then most of them don’t have a credible group of witnesses to back them up, as the Scriptures do from the historical record.

Then, there are those who choose to not believe in any supreme being at all. Choosing therefore to be their own “supreme being”, their own law unto themselves. This could be considered a form of idolatry, but if you don’t believe in God or Allah, then believing in yourself is considered just fine in today’s society. I am not bashing those who use belief in yourself as a way to get people to feel better about themselves, but when you are the one who supposedly controls your own destiny then you have a problem. Not with me or my own beliefs, but you will one day find that it was really God all along and that He does exist whether you like it or not.

Just as light and heat, gravity, stars and planets exist so does God and Satan, not believing in them doesn’t change that. Just as a comedian once said something like this “you can confess all the way down that gravity doesn’t exist, it won’t change the outcome.” This may not be a direct quote as I can’t remember the exact words, but the gist of it is the same.

Life on Earth is tough and it is not going to get any easier whether you believe in God or Allah or have no belief system at all. The troubles of this life are easier to bear when you have a belief in God, because you can have hope that one day He will make all things new just as He says in the Bible. Your life on a daily basis can be easier to bear with the stresses that we all have because of your faith in God. If you think that your life is fine without Him, that is your choice and He doesn’t begrudge you for it.

We are not forced into belief, it is our choice to come to faith in God when we are convicted that our life is in need of Jesus. If you never feel that conviction from Him, then all that I can say is “I’m sorry”.

Some have said that Christians are blind and they follow blindly, but consider that faith is having a hope in something which is not seen yet it has been promised by One Who cannot break His promises. James said it best by this:

Dead Faith (James 2:14–17)

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

When you have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ, that is an action because you have faith in Him. Therefore, you will do things in your life which reflect that faith so that others might see it. It doesn’t bring you glory but it does glorify God because it was Him Who called you to faith and you answered. Please, open your heart and mind to the possibility that God’s Word is True. Look at it as the Israelites did while they were captive in Egypt, they were told that one would come who would bring them out of bondage. They didn’t know who or when, but they had faith that God would keep His promise and He always does.

 

Living life for the hereafter


It seems that many people don’t really believe that there is a hereafter to live for, but according to the Bible there is. God’s Word is the Truth, therefore it can’t be wrong so that means that there is a life after this one. We are supposed to be living this life as a rehearsal of sorts for the next life. How we live this life will affect the next one in terms of where (location) and the comfort of our living through eternity as well. Living your life as if there is no tomorrow is a good thing, of sorts, because you aren’t expecting tomorrow to come. Some might say this is bad because then you just do whatever you wish and don’t worry about the consequences.

Yet, there are consequences in the next life. You will not be coming back here as something or someone else, but you will be yourself in the next life. Your eternal life will be a reflection, in a way, of how you have lived in this life. If you have given your heart to Jesus, no matter what age you may have done so, then you will be with Him in Paradise as He told the thief on the cross.

If you did not and you lived even the best life possible for a man or woman to do without Jesus, you are still convicted of a sinful life. A life without the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus, which will still send you to hell. I know, this is one of those topics which you don’t hear mentioned much on radio ministries or television either, but it should be! Why? Because, our God is an Awesome God, but He is Holy and therefore can’t abide sin, no matter how small that sin may be. I have to tell you of the consequences of rejecting Jesus as your Savior because it is my responsibility to do so.

Just as not telling you about a poisonous snake in your path might get you killed, not telling you about the consequences of a life without Christ will also result in your eternal death, as the Bible calls it “the second death”. The problem is that you won’t die in the same sense as you do here, the death will be the separation from God and everything that is or could be good in eternity.

Your life is eternal, the life we live here and now is not. Consider that your life today, no matter how long it may be, actually would be no more than the size of the period at the end of this sentence when compared to eternity.

After that period (.), will be a very long, long, long time to live and serve God in His Kingdom on the New Earth. We have no idea what we will do or where we may go in all of that time, but it will be glorious, of that I am sure! Don’t you want to be part of that rather than being in fire and heat and darkness with the demons and Satan himself? I would and I will. Won’t you consider joining me? Seek out God in His Word, pray to Him about what you read and when you feel His call, answer it. You won’t be disappointed…ever!

The REAL instigator


The person responsible for the fall of mankind isn’t man at all nor is it a woman, it is a fallen angel named Lucifer. He used our own feelings against us in the garden and he is still doing it today. We feel lonely, he is a friend for a price. We are hurt, then he will soothe your feelings with words of comfort..for a price. When you are angry, he will make you feel powerful but he will abandon you when you have to pay for something that you did. There is one particular emotion which he knows how to use and manipulate like a master violin player and that is our pride!

That part of us is usually hidden from most of the world, but sometimes our ego lets it loose. That part of us is easily tweaked as well, our ego, but it goes right along with pride so both of them travel together. Satan has been using this against us for a very long time and he and his demons are expert at getting inside our minds and finding our weaknesses and then using them against us. We shouldn’t be surprised at this at all, because humanity does these same manipulations with each other all of the time.

Sports figures, media, actors and actresses, the list is endless and yet we all tend to be just as manipulative of each other and we begin learning it at a very early age. As children, we learn to manipulate our parents and grandparents into getting us things that we want and we carry that ability into our adult lives. It is part of our “fallen nature” and that is what needs fixing, although many people don’t want to do what is needed in order to get it done.

Jesus is waiting to come into your life and into your heart and He is the only fix, the only cure for our life’s problems. True, becoming a Christian will not provide you with wealth enough to pay everything immediately and I have never claimed that it would, but being a Christian and living by the principles outlined in the Bible will give you an outlook toward being debt free.

The debt toward your sinful life is paid by the blood of Jesus and the life that you live after you accept Him will reflect that if you will read the Bible, pray about your day before starting it, tell others how knowing Jesus has impacted your life. These are the fruits of a life that has been changed by Jesus, it is not work that is required of you nor will it give you more status in the Kingdom of God. These grateful actions are what you do when you feel that Jesus has done something for you that you cannot EVER repay!

Even with our pride and arrogance and ego, God loved us long before we ever heard His call on our life and then answered that call. The thing that many people can’t understand is that we don’t…we can’t be worthy of a place in Heaven without Jesus! If you have ever felt the pull on your heart and soul at a church service or revival and then refused to accept Jesus right then, its okay. But, don’t keep putting Him off by pushing Him away and ignoring Him. God has something which He needs you to do, that is why He is calling you. Because only you can do whatever it is, but you won’t find out until you accept it by accepting Jesus!

Emotions get in our way and sometimes ruin relationships and families, pride and ego, anger, frustration, fear, jealousy are all part of our fallen nature, our “dark side” if you  will. But we can overcome that dark side of us by asking Jesus to come into our lives and give us the power and change us into the people who He knows we can be. When that happens, the world doesn’t look the same or feel the same ever again because it is temporary and will be remade like it once was one day.

Give your heart to Jesus and live for Him every day so that your life will be magnificent and wonderful just as He knows that you can be. Don’t let Satan spoil your life and make it into a mockery of what God knows is there!

What is your passion?


A friend asked me once, “What would  you do if you could make more money?”. My answer was, “Pay off all of my bills.” The problem today is that I am disabled and can’t work at a regular job, so I write on this blog. It doesn’t pay me anything, at least in this life, but I am hoping that some of you get a lift from it or from the words that God gives me to write.

Your passion is usually something which you are, well passionate about! For some people it is their job or making money, for others it may be conservation or community projects, still other people may just be passionate about their immediate family and their well-being. Then there are the sports fanatics and others who are passionate about their teams or whatever. Today, many people seem to be involved in online gaming and for some this is a bit too much.

The point that I was making in the paragraph above is that we sometimes put more of ourselves into something which has no future at all. It doesn’t provide us with any tangible reward other than the enjoyment of our passion, but outside of that, what do you get from it? In truth, many people don’t really care about getting something from it, they just enjoy it period.

Writing does that for me. Sometimes, the words that I am given are inspirational and sometimes they are uplifting or even critical. The reason behind my writing is something which we can’t experience yet and that is eternity. We all have it ahead of us in one form or another. Some think that they will be buried in the ground for an eternity and that is it, others think that when you die, that’s the end of everything like turning off a light.

I write here to tell you that you and I have an eternity ahead of us because that is how God created us. We have a part of us which will live on, our soul or spirit, and depending on our choices in this life will determine where and how our eternity will be spent. Your life, compared to even a portion of eternity like one million years, is pitifully short like a puff of smoke in the wind. It is gone in an instant, like the snapping of fingers.

That is the amount of time that we have here to make a small difference in our lives and in the lives of others. How we accomplish this depends upon Who we choose to follow, God or our own desires. Following our own desires is what we do to begin with and for a while we feel okay with it. But, when you feel something from the Spirit of God usually like an empty feeling like something is missing. Then, you want to fix it as if something just isn’t right.

We try doing this by experimentation with all sorts of “feel good” things. The problem is that they don’t work, at least not in the long-term. They are temporary just like our life. The only real fix is seeking out the Creator, Jesus, Who will fill that empty spot with Himself and then your life will be totally changed. Your passion won’t be the same any more, the hunger that you felt for other things will change.

Following and learning from Jesus is a journey and it is one which doesn’t end, until we are in His presence. When we are there, we will know as we are known. At that point, it won’t matter because our eternal life will be in front of us and all of those friends that we know now who are Christians, we can have fellowship with them for eternity. Although, I am sure our experience will be far above what we can experience here on Earth.

Determine your destiny, seek out God’s wisdom in His Word, seek Him out by prayer and learning of Him because until you find Him and His purpose for your life, you will feel as if something is missing that you can’t put your finger on. That something is Jesus, the missing piece to all of our puzzles.

What is wrong with this world?


Exodus 33:19,20:
“And He said, I will make all of my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 And He said, Thou cannot see My face: for no man shall see my face and live.”

God is Holy, Righteous and Steadfast. He doesn’t change neither does He sleep, and yet people in this world think that He doesn’t see what is going on around us. He does and He knows who is responsible for it, Satan. Because Satan hates us with an utmost hatred that cannot be fathomed by man. We are here enjoying whatever we have in life, not because of the graciousness of Satan, but by the grace and the love flowing from Almighty God!

If God’s presence were not here, with each of us, everyday, then Satan would unleash his hatred upon the Earth and the inhabitants of the Earth. Jesus said that “if those days were not shortened, no one would survive”. This is the first part of the Tribulation times which are coming to us soon, Satan will be loosed and all of the Earth, not just humanity, will groan under his hatred. No one will be saved from it except for those who are God’s children. I am not speaking of the Jewish people, I am speaking of the Christians who may still be here at this time.

God loves all of us, even those who don’t know Him, but He will not tolerate the sinful lives that people live today. Living together, lying, stealing, murderers, those who practice homosexuality, idolaters, and those who exploit and use children for sex and other crimes. It is the sin that God hates, not the sinner.

Repent and ask Him to cleanse you and bring you into the family of God. Believe in Jesus and be saved because the time is coming when it will be hard and almost impossible to distinguish between the Anti-Christ and the real One, because of the spirit of deception which will be released into the world. Yes, Satan is powerful BUT he is a created being like you or I am, God is in control!

The world which we see every day is being attacked, spiritually, by Satan and his demons. They cause disease and death all around us and incite hatred among religious people and different religions. All of the conflicts which are going on in the world have his hatred of us as the cause, in one way or another. The reason for this is that Satan hates everything that God loves. The people here on Earth but specifically the nation of Israel and the Christian church.

This is why he masqueraded as an angel of light to bring false religions to this world, from Mormonism to Islam. God loves each of us, but when we follow a god of this world, which is a demon or Satan himself, then we are on the wrong side. Unless you repent of this and accept Jesus as your Savior, then you will suffer the same fate as Satan.

Lots of stuff happening


Many times and in many places today, people are not sure of what is happening in our world. Oh, they see the news and read it on the Internet and in newspapers and magazines, but much of the stuff that we read and hear about is truly hard to understand. Why are people so angry and frustrated in our world today? Why can’t we just get along with each other? What happened in the past few decades, when we apparently weren’t paying attention, to make our world the way it is now?

All of these questions are asked by people all over the world, yet very few people can give a rational explanation for any of them. Why is that? It is because of a lack of faith and a lack of trust in Almighty God for one. We have become so dependent upon technology and instant gratification until we can’t seem to take a step back and take a breath in order to learn the awesomeness of God Himself! Someone today would ask, “Why should I learn of someone who I don’t believe in? He has no control over my life, and I won’t give him that control.” If that is the way that you feel toward God, then I pity you, whether you accept my pity or not I don’t care.

God is the Healer, not the doctor. God is the Comforter, not your pills. God is the Father of all, not Darwin or Dawkins or whoever you have heard that is preaching the religion of evolution!

God loves you and all of those around you, like it or not, but He doesn’t force you to follow Him or worship Him or even do the things which are written in the Bible. Why not? Because anyone who is forced to do something, hates the person or the system that is forcing them and God wants your love. That is why we have a choice. That is why we are able to choose to obey, to follow, to learn of Him. It’s because of love. Jesus was not forced into submission, He did it willingly because of love. John 3:16 is a verse which almost everyone knows whether they believe it or not, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.”

We were created to have fellowship with God, not because we have to but because we should want to. Think of it this way, if you were found guilty of a crime punishable by death, not just a death but one which would go on and on throughout eternity in pain and agony. Then some person came forward and said that they would pay your debt, wipe clean your slate and take the punishment in your place, without anything that you could give them for this or anything that you might add because you have already been condemned. What would you do? What would you say to them? Would you be grateful beyond measure? Or would you just walk off and say, “Better you than me!”? It seems that in our society today, many people would do just that. Why?

I can’t answer that. My love for God and for His Son doesn’t allow me to understand that sort of callous, cold heart. I know that some people feel that way, because years ago that would’ve been me. Consider that Jesus didn’t have to do any of the redemptive things which He did, but because He loved the Father and the Father, God Himself, loves each one of us, Jesus did fulfill all of those things which had been prophesied about Him. Out of love and compassion for us, Jesus willingly gave His life so that we might have an eternity to look forward to. Some think that they are going to have an eternal party with Satan in hell, without interference from God. It will be an eternity, but it will not be a party!

You get this life to work out your relationship with God, as short or as long as your life may be. None of us knows how many years or days we have left, so the idea that you can wait until you are old is just stupid. You might be involved in a severe car wreck tomorrow and never wake up from it, until you are face to face with God. You may have a stroke or a heart attack tonight which may put you face to face with God. The point is that, whether you believe in God’s existence or not, you will face Him one day. He doesn’t punish you by sending you to hell, you are the one who has made that choice and it is your choice! By sending Jesus to take the punishment for all of us on the cross, God provided each of us a way to be reconciled to Him, all that is required of us is belief in Jesus and asking Him to forgive us for waiting so long.

How Much?


How much should we endure in our lives? How much should we forgive and forget? How much? This is the question which people ask when they can’t afford what they are looking at, and yet they ask it anyway. It is also the question that we ask when we want to know what it will take to get something done, whether in the spiritual realm or the physical. How much time? How much money? How much of my life will this involve? Do you really have so much time and money that you can’t part with any of it or are you just selfish? God gave you the job or the income that you have, why can’t you give Him credit for what you live off of?

The only time that Jesus asked a question which sounded like, “How much?”, was when He fed the five thousand men. He asked His disciples about the amount of food that they had found, which was a boys lunch of two loaves of bread and some fish. God can take a little and do a lot with it, just as He used the twelve disciples and turned the world upside down with His message and the church began. That small lunch which the boy had actually fed about fifteen thousand or so since there were women and children present too, which wasn’t counted in the initial count.

How much more are we going to have to put up with before we realize that the Bible is right? Everything that is happening today, around the world, is part of prophecy. From the book of Daniel to Revelation, the world that we see and hear about on the news is there in some form. Yes, they may have used some descriptions which describe things that don’t exist, but the men who wrote those books had never seen a helicopter or a jet air plane, so they described them the best way that they could with what they knew of at the time. The next world conflict will begin in the Middle East, maybe in Turkey or Iraq, but it will be in that region. Who will be fighting whom, I don’t know, but it will involve religious differences and hatred between people.

It has been brewing ever since the nation of Israel reformed and became a nation in 1948 and it is coming to a head soon. I don’t know the date, no one does except for God, the point is that we need to get back to our faith in Him, because the problems which are coming with this conflict and the economic disaster which will likely happen before this war will cause tremendous trouble all over the world. Why do we need to get back to God? Because we need an anchor, a Rock to cling to in the raging water, something that is unchanging and that is God and His Truth. Throw that away and we have anarchy. Few people will live through a lawless nation or a world without laws and morals. Think about it, pray about it, come back to God before it is too late.

Satan’s plan


The church is being deceived by Satan and his fallen angels and was so long ago and they are still at it today. Oh, for some it is a very minor deception, mostly of pride and arrogance which has been nurtured by working in the minds of clerics and priests as well as in bishops and preachers. The deception is so subtle until it is hard to spot, until the damage is done but it creeps in like rust on a steel bridge. A little weakening here and there, a bit of dodging around the scriptures in ways that seem “right” but changes their meaning just a bit. This has been his way all along, just as he did in Eden when he asked Eve about what God said. “You will not surely die! You will be like God knowing good and evil. Twisting words a bit, appealing to humanity’s pride, because pride has been the root of mankind’s sin that gives rise to all kinds of things like rebellion and vanity just as it did when the rebellion happened in Heaven.

Satan and his fallen angels will do whatever is possible against the church and its members in order to take as many with them into hell as they can. They are the instruments of disease, death, persecution and temptation in our world, especially against the church and those who claim to know Jesus. They also empower some church leaders to gain so much wealth that the message becomes twisted and weak and in the end, the body of Christ becomes weak and pitiful, alive but just barely.

In many ways, this is exactly what the world sees in the church today, regardless of the denomination or the leader who is taking his flock on a very broad road to hell with the assistance of Satan himself. As long as he can injure or take down the effectiveness of the church and the message, then he and his fallen angels will do just that, regardless of how much damage it does. He hates man with a passion which goes beyond human understanding and he hates the church even more!

The church has seen much deceit and division with people caught in lies and extortion and with the “leaders” of the congregations getting into all sorts of trouble. Some of them caught in adulterous situations and some getting very wealthy from their “partners in the ministry” helping to spread the Gospel of Christ and yet they own mansions and cars and jets. This is not the church that Jesus intended it to be!

Christians are supposed to be patterning their lives after Jesus, seeking Him and His Wisdom in everything that they do, yet there are some who do demonstrate against authority, against the law and against our government.Why is this being done? Because, if Satan can make the world look at the church, the body of Christ, as intolerant and hateful towards the freedoms that the world enjoys without the church then soon the world will turn against the church altogether.

One of the biggest problems with mankind and one that Satan uses is that we have an independent fallen nature which gives us the delusion of being in control of our lives and the outcome of our lives, whether spiritual or physical. We think that we are capable of reaching for Heaven independent of God and that is the biggest lie that Satan has told and nearly the whole world believes it! True believing Christians who depend on God and seek Him in their lives do not, but it seems that those are few these days and likely in a couple of generations will disappear from the Earth which is exactly what Satan wants!

Since God created mankind to worship Him and know Him, Satan is striking at God by destroying or hurting us in any way that he can. Through disease, poverty, war, famine, hatred of our religion and the One that we follow, Satan has struck at the heart of God by striking at the church, those of us who believe in Jesus and His message. If he can do enough damage that Christianity were outlawed and church services were banned, unless they were worshipping him or one of the “religions” that he approves of, then part of his mission here is working.

It is not finished yet, but he knows that his time is growing short.Then, he will turn on God’s people, the Jews just because they are God’s chosen people. He has deceived them into being so religious about their religion that they missed the Christ when He came and many still can’t see Him even today because they are blinded to Him. Pray that our world and those in it who have been blinded by the pride of life and their own fantasies will come to realize that they are not in control

God wants you!


God

God wants you, not your bank account or your stuff(whatever that might be), He wants you!

There is nothing that we can give to Him which is more valuable than ourselves. He is the One Who gave you what you have anyway, but if you haven’t given your heart and your life to Him then you are missing the point of life itself! He is Life and Truth and when you give your life to Him, then He can begin to work in your life and through you to reach others for Jesus. Allow God to change your perspective this year from a point in front of you to one which is in eternity! God wouldn’t have given His Son’s life on the cross just to blot out your sins unless He wanted you to come to Him in love and be in fellowship with Him every day! Believe it or not, God loves every person on this planet even though He doesn’t like the lifestyle that they live in or even the paths that they have chosen in life. When you give your heart to Jesus, don’t just put Him in the passenger seat and let Him ride with you, it needs to be and should be YOU who is riding along with Him! God can take you places and help you to do some things that you can’t do on your own, but fellowship like this is done on purpose, every day. This what Jesus meant when He said to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Seeking God and His wisdom is not a one time meeting every week, it is daily prayer time and reading of the Bible. Meditating on it so that you will understand the lessons contained in it.

This year, many of you need to be coming closer to Jesus so that you can learn from Him and find what you have been missing all of the years of your life. That part of you that feels empty or unfulfilled is the part which Jesus can give meaning and purpose to.